More than 100 killed and Injured in Baghdad Blasts

Mon Nov 3, 2014 10:02:42

Two car bomb blasts targeting Shiites in Baghdad ahead of the major Ashura religious commemorations killed at least 19 people on Sunday.

The first blast struck near a tent providing tea and water four pilgrims in the Al-Ilam area in southwest Baghdad. It killed 13 people and wounded at least 29 people.

In the evening another car bomb exploded in the majority Shiite Sadr City district of northeast Baghdad, killing 6 people and wounding 19. Again the target was a tent set up to host pilgrims.

Earlier Sunday, a car bomb blew up near a police checkpoint in central Baghdad killing five people and wounding 17, while another bombing in western Baghdad killed one person and wounded five.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims will flock to the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala for Ashura, which marks the death of Imam Hussein, one of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam.

Canada conducts first airstrikes on IS targets in Iraq

Meanwhile Canada conducted airstrikes on ISIS positions in Iraq for the first time on Sunday, while reports emerged that the jihadist group had executed more than 300 tribe’s men and omen in recent days.

"Today's strike demonstrates our government's firm resolve to tackle the threat of terrorism and to stand with our allies against ISIL's atrocities against innocent women, children and men," Canadian Defense Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement.

Canada's airstrikes come after a gunman whose name was on a terror watch list killed a soldier and attempted to storm Canada's parliament last month. The attack was one of two targeting Canadian soldiers’ just days apart.

Canada joined the anti-IS coalition on Thursday and conducted two days of reconnaissance before sending two CF-18s to attack terrorist’s positions around the city of Fallujah.
The attacks followed reports that IS had slaughtered scores of people from the Albu Nimr tribe, which had taken up arms against the insurgents.

Iraqi State television said on Sunday that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had ordered airstrikes on ISIS targets around the town of Hit in response to the killings. Iraq's most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the government on Friday to rush to the aid of Sunni tribal leaders.

Video released by Iraqi defense ministry shows Iraqi warplane targeting ISIS position in town of Hit in Anbar province. Also Iraqi army attack terrorist in this province.

Women and children were said to be among those executed from Albu Nimr tribe who show resistance toward ISIS terrorist over the past 10 days in western Iraq's Anbar province.

The killings are probably aimed at discouraging resistance from powerful local tribes in Anbar.

After Albu Nimr, ISIS targeting Jubur tribe in Salaheddin province

IS also detained dozens of members of the Jubur tribe in Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad, officials and a tribal leader said.

Jubur tribesmen and security forces have been holding out for months against IS in the provincial town of Dhuluiyah.  

US-led coalition air raids near Kobane has almost nothing   

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, reported fierce clashes in the town's center, north, south and Kurdish fighters shelling IS positions to its east. 150 Iraqi Kurdish fighters have joined the fight against ISIS militants in Kobani, hoping their support for fellow Kurds will keep the ultra-hardline group from seizing the Syrian border town.

Smoke rises above from Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, as seen from the Turkish border town of Suruc, in Sanliurfa province, on November 2, 2014.

Prior to Canada's airstrikes, the US-led coalition carried out at least three air raids near Kobane early on Sunday, according to the Observatory which relies on a wide network of sources inside the country.

At least 11 terrorists were killed in those strikes and fighting on Saturday, it said.

The Pentagon said five air strikes near Kobane on Saturday and Sunday hit five small IS units and destroyed three vehicles.

The arrival of the 150 Iraqi fighters -- known as peshmerga or "those who confront death" -- marks the first time Turkey has allowed troops from outside Syria to reinforce Syrian Kurds, who have been defending Kobani for more than 40 days.

Iraqi Peshmerga in Kobani only "temporally"

Iraqi Kurdish forces will only stay in Syria "for a temporary period", the Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government said on Sunday.

Nechirvan Barzani said that Kurdish peshmerga fighters will stay there to help reinforce fellow Kurds fighting to defend the town of Kobani from militants with the ISIS group.

Barzani said the involvement of the fighters in Syria isn't intended to achieve any political goals, but rather, is geared at the short-term goal of aiding fellow Kurds in the embattled town along the Syrian-Turkish border.   

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova (2ndR) receives a gift during a visit at the National Museum of Iraq on November 2, 2014 in Baghdad.

UNESCO call world action on protecting Iraq heritage

The Director-General of UNESCO on Sunday called for world action on protecting heritage sites in conflict areas.

Irina Bokova has called on the international community to work together to stop the destruction of Iraqi cultural heritage by ISIS in Iraq.

Speaking in Baghdad on Sunday, Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said the destruction of "Sumerian heritage, of temples, of religious sites, of mosques, of churches" was being carried out "in the most barbaric manner".

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